My husband has decided to hire the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to mow our lawn. He feels that not only would the large number of people involved help get the task completed more quickly, but they might give us a performance afterwards at no extra cost. We are both fans of classical music and effective gardening, but is this a step too far?

As we took the sea of sand dunes one by one, we desperately clung to the sides while trying to stop the sand flying into our eyes, as we rushed at the speed of the gazelles that were giving us chase in the desert.

In Afghanistan you get power cuts every day, lots of them. There are times I admit that I do get a little frustrated with the internet going on the blink, particularly when you are in the middle of email sex with someone who is four time zones removed.